Historic planting season rolls on with big Saturday

5,000 trees in four months
There are nine plantings remaining through April 10. (FOT file)

The tree tally records continue to climb for Friends of Trees and there are still four full weekends of planting opportunities.

A quick look at the numbers so far from the biggest planting season in 20 years:

NT Planting: 03.13.10, Argay, Parkrose, Parkrose Heights, Russell, Sumner & Wilkes
Volunteers helped plant 141 trees last Saturday in East Portland. (Ryan Summers)
  • 13,587 trees and shrubs planted
  • 3,423 large trees injected into the local canopy
  • Over a dozen natural area restoration sites established
  • Thousands of volunteer hours, from digging holes to preparing chili
  • Plantings spread across rivers and counties, in various cities and dozens of neighborhoods

The fun continues this weekend, March 20, with the last four-planting Saturday for Friends of Trees and its two programs, Neighborhood Trees (NT) and Green Space Initiative (GSI).

Ryan Summers, who planted a Greenspire Linden with his wife last weekend, said the best part was meeting and hanging out with his neighbors for the first time.

“We were excited to volunteer with FOT because it made it affordable to replace our tree and help add more trees to our area,” wrote Summers. “It really is a great way to meet and interact with your immediate community.”

The two NT plantings are in Vancouver and in the Cully, Madison South, Rose City Park and Roseway neighborhoods of Portland. The Portland planting is going for over 300 large street and yard trees, which will be a more than 100 percent increase in the same neighborhoods from last year.

Also, Portland City Commissioner Dan Saltzman is confirmed to attend his second planting of the season.

GSI concludes its last two-planting Saturday in Tualatin and again along the I-205 Multi-Use Path. While part of the GSI mission is to plant small trees and shrubs as natural area restoration, the greening I-205 project, where larger trees are planted, garners timely attention because of the new partnerships with Metro and ODOT.

Metro Council President David Bragdon will attend Saturday’s I-205 planting to help promote the three-year partnership that is bringing large trees to the corridor from the Columbia River to Gladstone.

As usual, plantings begin at 9 a.m. sharp, but arrive early for registration and refreshments. All are welcome—just remember to dress for the weather. Forecast right now is … sunshine!

–Toshio Suzuki